Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council v SPC and KU (SEN): [2018] UKUT 37 (AAC)

Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber decision by Judge Ward on 31 January 2018.

• From: HM Courts & Tribunals Service and Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber)
• Published: 13 February 2018

• Categories: Special educational needs and Tribunal procedure and practice
• Sub-categories: Special educational needs - other and Tribunal procedure and practice - costs
• Judges: Ward, C
• Decision date: 31 January 2018

Read the full decision in HS/3083/2017.

Judicial Summary

Whether the FtT erred in law in holding that the shortness of time between the possibility of settlement and the hearing mean that a lay representative, assumed to have been instrumental in the decision to proceed to hearing, had not acted unreasonably, and so was able to resist an application by the local authority for an award of costs against him personally. Query whether the stated basis of the application under r.10(1)(b) of the rules of FtT HESC was the correct one in what was in substance a “wasted costs” case.

Published 13 February 2018